A farmer in Choco stands amidst his cacao plants. Photo: Anna Vogt
Mexico Ayotzinapa massacre: new theory suggests illicit cargo motivated attack
The government has responded cautiously to the report, welcoming its findings as a contribution to uncovering the whole story, while choosing to ignore the questions it raises about the credibility of its investigation. “Today we have more elements to help us clear up these unfortunate events,” said President Enrique Peña Nieto earlier this month. He did not mention the fact that the official version has not changed since November when it was described as the “historical truth” by his then attorney general. “The case is still open,” Peña Nieto added. “The investigation continues.”
‘The End of Power’ for LatAm’s Underworld
“From boardrooms to battlefields and churches to states, why being in charge isn’t what it used to be,” reads the front cover of best-selling book “The End of Power.” The same is true for underworlds across Latin America. In his book, author Moises Naim lays out how and why power is seeping out of the hands of traditional elites and into those of upstarts around the world. Naim stresses that this process is occurring in a wide range of our most cherished institutions, from political parties to militaries to businesses and religions. However, a similar dynamic is also playing out within the confines of a much more nefarious realm: organized crime in Latin America. InSight Crime identifies four ways in which the changing nature of power outlined by Naim also applies to the region’s organized crime landscape.
El Niño drought causing food crisis in vulnerable Central America
A second report, released on Thursday by the U.N.’s World Food Program and the International Organization of Migration explored the link between food insecurity, violence and migration out of the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The report estimated that 1.5 million people in the three countries now suffer from severe or moderate food insecurity. This represented 25 percent of households in Guatemala, 36 percent in Honduras and 13 percent in El Salvador. From 2011 to 2013, 30.5 of Guatemalans were considered undernourished, 11.9 percent of El Salvadorans and 8.7 percent of Hondurans.
Carlos Dada: Guatemalan Victories over Impunity Have Inspired People across Central America
So what will it take to allow for something like this in El Salvador? Well, if they don’t want a CICIG, something else will have to happen, because society there can’t go on anymore the way it is going. El Salvador is about to explode. It is now the most violent country in the world and Honduras is following really close. People get tired of this, so I know that what has been happening in Guatemala is forcing the two political parties to talk about bringing someone honest and credible to the prosecutor’s office, because they don’t want to be forced to allow the establishment of a CICIG in El Salvador. Because they see it as a direct result of pressure from Washington, so it goes against the state’s independence or sovereignty. But they need to do something to bring credibility to such a key institution.
Women Revolutionise Waste Management on Nicaraguan Island
A group of poor women from Ometepe, a beautiful tropical island in the centre of Lake Nicaragua, decided to dedicate themselves to recycling garbage as part of an initiative that did not bring the hoped-for economic results but inspired the entire community to keep this biosphere reserve clean.
How Women Trade Amid Tensions in Haiti
Reports from a busy border crossing in the north suggest that far fewer Saras are streaming into the adjoining Dominican town for market. As the Dominican Republic moves to tighten its borders, Haitian officials have responded by enforcing duties on Dominican goods moving the other way. Amid calls for an outright boycott of the D.R., Haiti’s minister of economy and finance, Wilson Laleau, announced this week that Haiti will soon enforce a ban on some Dominican goods crossing its borders by land and will restrict the number of ports at which they may arrive by sea. It’s a policy prompted by antagonism from abroad, but one whose most likely victims, at least in the short term, will be Haitian: the Saras and those depending on the essentials that they transport.
Farc peace talks: Colombia nears historic deal after agreement on justice and reparations
Colombia took a major step toward ending its five decades of war on Wednesday with a historic deal between the government and leftist Farc rebels on issues of justice and reparations to victims of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts, clearing the path for a final peace deal to be signed within months. In an unprecedented joint announcement in Havana, Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, and Farc’s chief, Rodrigo Londoño – known as Timochenko – said the two sides had agreed on a formula for transitional justice for conflict-related crimes such as kidnapping, murder, forced displacement, disappearance and torture, one of the most complex issues on the negotiations.
Colombia: From Coca Cultivation to Gold Mining and Back
The labor dynamic of both illegal mining and coca cultivation means those at the bottom of the chain, who pick the coca and sift the gold, are not members of armed groups but itinerant workers in the only economies in town. And many of those workers in the mining sector feel unfairly and indiscriminately targeted by the security forces — making coca a more attractive option. The illegal mining boom in Bajo Cauca is far from over; there remain up to 1,100 mining operations in the region directly employing an estimated 45,000 people, according to the miners association. But there is a growing sense that the bubble may have burst. Also growing is the sense of failure emerging out of success in Colombia’s anti-illegal mining campaign — the same feeling that has haunted Colombia’s efforts to eradicate coca for decades. In its wars against both coca and illegal mining, the authorities have relentlessly pursued the bottom rung of the supply chain, bringing short term success. But the underlying conditions of poverty, lack of opportunity and the control of armed groups in areas rich in coca and gold have remained unaddressed — and as long as they do, illegal economies will continue to fill the gaps.
Tracking Down Bolivia’s Narco-Planes
These drug flights have also created a frequently updated list of aerial accidents. It is illustrative of the precariousness which the feared aerial traffickers — who are mostly Bolivian — are all too willing to face, for the sake of making money. The line between landing and crashing the plane is a thin one. The planes frequently end up smashed in the jungle. If the wreckage if found, a small group of police intelligence investigators will then begin a stubborn attempt to recreate what happened to the plane — and who were the owners. ..Martin Rapozo exported more than 30 planes from the United States to Bolivia. And — judging by what we know thus far — he was able to do this with impunity for several years.